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Reviews For: Kenwood Service East

Category: Amateur Radio Equipment Repair

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Review Summary For : Kenwood Service East
Reviews: 86MSRP: Facility Closed 5/2018
Description:
Kenwoods east coast repair location. I believe it is a
subcontractor not really Kenwood
Product is not in production
More Info: http://
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00864.3
N3IJW Rating: 2012-11-12
Good service Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Sent in my out-of-warranty Kenwood TM-D710 after the A-side receiver went stone deaf (and B-side was getting there). I shipped the radio out via UPS on 02 Nov, and it was back in my hands on 12 Nov. AVSL replaced all four ceramic filters at no charge. My only expense was shipping the rig to AVSL. 5/5 for sure.
VE5MV Rating: 2012-05-16
no service Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I sent my Kenwood R5000 rcvr in to them for a service...Kenwood East made no reply at all....three weeks later they returned it to me with a brief note saying the unit was no longer supported by Kenwood. To their credit they paid the return shipping charges after I sent a letter inquiring after the whereabouts of my radio and with my CC info. They are probably excellent for Kenwood warranty work but they are not Kenwood per se...they are a warranty shop only apparently
WV4I Rating: 2012-03-26
fast turn time Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Bought a TS-590S as a recon, B stock. Had a loose main tuning dial as well as stripped main dial set screw. Kenwood repaired under warranty, only had radio 2-3 biz days. Annoyed at shipping expense, but the repair service is fast, efficient. I do hope Kenwood goes back to figure out how a recon radio could have had this problem.
N1IRL Rating: 2012-02-05
Excellent Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Sent my TS-2000 in for the dreaded "static crashes" problem on the main receiver on all bands with no antenna connected. Not only did they fix this problem under warranty but the replaced the rf muting transistor, replaced the memory back-up battery, installed the latest firmware and aligned the radio again as needed. Total cost of the repair was $93.00 which included shipping. I had the radio back in less than 2 weeks. They had previously replaced a faulty mic gain pot on my Kenwood TS-440S and had that back to me in less than 2 weeks as well!

Two thumbs up for Kenwood Service Center East! Should you have any problems there ask for Earl..., he has been with them for 25 years and knows his stuff.

73 de N1IRL
WR0F Rating: 2012-01-23
Excellent Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Sent my bad rarely used except 1296 mhz TS 2000X in for the dreaded low hf receiver and they fixed the problem UNDER WARRANTY and including travel time was back in my hands in less than 2 weeks.
Now I know why we buy Kenwood Radios .
KF5HEL Rating: 2011-07-27
Steer clear if you can... Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Saturday, July 16th: My Kenwood TH-F6 handheld suddenly stopped working. That afternoon, I hit the Internet and found Kenwood's authorized service centers on both the east and west coast. I decided to send it to the "East" one because it was a bit closer geographically to me.

Monday, July 18th: I called the number listed on the website, but got lost in their electronic options menu, so I hung up and decided to go ahead and follow the instructions on the website to send in the radio. Despite "East's" website indicating they prefer UPS for shipping, I took my chances and shipped my tiny, lite radio (just the body, no battery) via good old USPS for $5, saving about $8 by not sending it via UPS on July 18th. It arrived there fine, apparently.

Wednesday, July 20th: I received an email from Joseph indicating that the radio was received and that I needed to fill out a form (attached to his email) asking for my credit card info, etc, and have it faxed back. I do not have a fax, so I instead printed out the form, scanned it in, and emailed it back to Joseph with a note that it was attached.

Monday, July 25th: I received a call from an older woman whose name I did not get. She told me the repair was $75, the part was $1.85 and the shipping was not determined as of yet. I told her to go ahead and repair the radio, all the time thinking that they had received and processed my email.

Later that day I received an email from UPS Quantum View indicating the radio was shipping COD for $104 ($28 was, I later learned, shipping!). I immediately called and spoke to someone in customer service who indicated that they had no record of receiving my credit card information. After about 4 minutes on hold, I was then passed to the same older woman who called me earlier in the day. She listened to my query, then told me that the radio was pulled off the truck, and that Joseph was going through his emails. Sure enough, she said, he did receive my email and my credit card information, but then proceeded to give some weird explanation about why it was missed (the attachment wasn't there, but the text was?? The attachment was a JPEG image..). I still don't know how that could have gotten missed by Joseph, but it did. If I receive an email saying there is an attachment and I don't see one, I email the sender back asking for it to be resent. That was not done in this case.

I then asked if it could be shipped via USPS since it was significantly cheaper, but she declined saying they only shipped UPS and that the damage rate on USPS shipments was very high, etc. The upside is that I saved a $10 COD charge by calling right away and getting the box pulled of the truck, but $18 to ship a tiny radio is still a major rip-off, no matter how you try to spin it.

By this point in the conversation, the woman was getting defensive and asking why we were continuing to talk. I politely but firmly explained that I felt there was a deficiency in how my repair was handled, and that as a business owner, she should probably take note. All she could say was that the vast majority of their customers were pleased with their service. In the end, I don't think I got through to her. She remained steadfastly defensive.

Summary: My radio is repaired and on its way back, charged to my credit card as I desired, albeit nearly a week later than it should have been, and cost me more in shipping that I thought was fair for a radio of that size.

Would I use "East's" service again? No.
Would I recommend them to someone for a repair? No.
KE4GRP Rating: 2011-06-01
Excellent Service Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Just wanted to say how good I think this servie is. I believe I was the cause of the problem by not hooking the amp up correctly, and blew a chip. Kenwood fixed the problem, kept me informed and charged far less than quoted and sent the Kenwood TS 480 HX back to me in 2 weeks.

Great Job, Virginia Beach!
W4NFR Rating: 2010-09-30
Great Service Center Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I recently sent my TS-870SAT to Kenwood Service Center in Virginia Beach, Va for repair. I was having a problem with the power output in Cw, FSK, FM and Am. They diagnosed the problem and fixed in record time. The turn around was great and I am impressed with their capability. This is the second transceiver repaired by them and I would highly recommend them.
William W4NFR

Kenwood Service Center East 829 Lynnhaven Pkwy., Suite 130 - Virginia Beach, VA 23452 Fax: (757) 340-6809 Repairs Only: 757 340-1702
WB2FVE Rating: 2010-07-31
TS440S No Power Time Owned: more than 12 months.
The output died on what had been my dad's, who is now a SK, rig. Transmit light came on OK, just no output.

I called them and described the problem, since it is an old rig, to be sure they could fix it before shipping it out. The problem was diagnosed the next day and I had it back in two weeks, running like new.
W1RON Rating: 2009-07-20
Don't bother Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
Called them to ask about having two TS-130S transceivers tuned up. No repairs were needed, just a tune up. The woman that answered the phone said they don't support them anymore. I told her it was just for tune up and she said they don't work on them in any capacity. Fortunately I got these two radios for nothing and they do work fine but I wanted to give one to my nephew who is just starting out in ham radio and I thought it would be nice to give him one in top operating condition. Too bad the radios weren't Icom. I sent a 25 year old radio to Icom in WA for repair last month and it was repaired and back to me in less than three weeks at a very reasonable cost. I would never buy a Kenwood radio after this experience. Apparently they want you to buy a new radio instead of doing any kind of service on older models even if it's just a tune up. Rating is based upon lack of service.